Skip to Main Content

Searching the catalogue

This guide details how to search the interim catalogue for the collection items you would like to view

Smarter searching

If you’re a more experienced user of the Library, you can search the catalogue in a smarter way to find what you’re looking for. 

You can format keywords in the simple search to create a more specific search. 

Wildcards 

You can use wildcards - symbols which replace a letter or a number - when you’re not sure how a word is spelt: 

  • use a question mark ? to replace a single character in a word. 

The term Marrake?h will search for Marrakech OR Marrakesh. 

Records retrieved will contain either spelling. 

  • use the asterisk * to replace more than one character. 

Cultur* will search for culture OR cultures OR cultural OR culturally. 

Results retrieved will contain one of these terms. 

Combining search terms: OR, NOT, and ( )  

  • Enter OR and NOT in capital letters. 

Entering austen pride prejudice will search for all records containing the words austen AND pride AND prejudice.

Entering austen pride NOT prejudice will return all records which contain the first two terms but not the last. 

Entering austen OR pride OR prejudice will return all records which contain any one of those terms. 

  • You can combine these with brackets ( ). 

Entering austen (pride OR prejudice) will return all records with the first term and either of the bracketed terms. 

Searching for exact phrases 

Use inverted commas “” to search for an exact phrase. 

“pride and prejudice” returns all records containing that specific phrase. 

Very smart searching 

You have the option of searching for words in particular parts of a catalogue record. To do this click Advanced search to the right of the search box on the home page: 

  • You can specify which parts of the record you wish to search. This is, in effect, refining your search up front. 
  • The simple search of austen pride will not only find editions of “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, but also books about that work.  

Using the advanced search, you can specify that you only want editions of that work: 

  • Choose author/creator austen and title pride to do this. 
  • You can also specify language chinese. 

This would find you all Chinese editions of “Pride and Prejudice”. 

Note: Not all choices are available in all catalogue records. Language, in particular, was not specified in older catalogue records. 

You can also use the smarter searching tips in the advanced search, choosing which terms you want to search in which part of the catalogue record.

When you can’t find what you’re looking for  

If you can’t find a record for the item you’re looking for in the catalogue, it may not be a printed item. Contact one of our team using QuickChat, or send us a message.